Olympic Broadcasting Services ( OBS) The IOC established Olympic Broadcasting Services in 2001 to serve as the permanent host broadcaster for the Olympic Games, eliminating the need to continually rebuild the broadcast operation for each edition of the Games. The objective of OBS is to ensure that the high standards of Olympic broadcasting are consistently maintained from one edition of the Games to the next. As the host broadcaster, OBS is responsible for providing the international television and radio signals from the Games to all rights- holding broadcasters around the world. For Beijing 2008, OBS entered into a joint venture with the Organising Committee, BOCOG, to create Beijing Olympic Broadcasting ( BOB), the on- site host broadcaster. BOB was responsible for the day- to- day operations in Beijing, under the management of OBS. BOB's presence at Beijing 2008 was massive, with more than 6,000 Games- time staff, 1,000 cameras, 575 digital videotape recorders, 350 broadcast trailers and 62 outside broadcast vans. IOC Marketing Report – Beijing 200827 BroadcastingChapter Three " Beijing was a truly groundbreaking Olympic Games. Beijing Olympic Broadcasting ( BOB) was able to utilise new technology to produce coverage that was unlike that provided in any previous Olympic Games. The HD images and the added impact of surround sound ensured the coverage was genuinely state- of- the- art, and I think everyone at BOB and the IOC can be enormously proud of the finished product." Manolo Romero, OBS Managing Director, BOB Chief Executive Officer

28IOC Marketing Report – Beijing 2008 Chapter ThreeBroadcasting " This is the beginning of the creation of a model for digital rights which are complementary to the television broadcast. The experience from Beijing was about the quality of delivery, which was immersive, engaging and interactive." Timo Lumme, Director, IOC Television and Marketing Services First Fully Digital Games Beijing 2008 was the first ever Olympic Games to have full digital coverage freely available around the world, with hundreds of millions of viewers able to follow the action on an extensive range of digital media platforms provided by rights- holding broadcasters, including live and video- on- demand internet coverage and highlights clips on mobile phones. Advances in " geo- blocking" and anti- piracy technology allowed the IOC to guarantee exclusive digital rights within their territories. ( For further information, see the chapter on Brand Protection.) In addition to the activities of its rights- holding broadcast partners, the IOC launched its own internet channel, " Beijing 2008", available on the YouTube platform, to broadcast video highlights from the Games to those territories where digital video- on- demand rights had not been sold. In total, 78 territories across Africa, Asia and the Middle East were able to access the highlights. This marked the first time that the IOC has produced and delivered footage to Olympic fans directly. The channel received over 21 million video views during the period of the Games. In addition, the official IOC website and other Games- related sites also attracted record levels of traffic, with Beijing2008. cn drawing in 105.7 million unique users during August and www. olympic. org receiving more visits in the first week of the Games than it had done for the whole of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.